Msi vs Asus Z690 in terms of reliability?

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Visii

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I was looking at getting either the Msi Z690 pro wifi D4 or the Asus Z690 Tuf D4, both have sufficient ports for my needs and I won’t be overclocking. (B660 just makes no sense at the price and probably has worse resale value.)

My main concern is getting whichever one has the least amount of issues. However I also have read that the Asus vrms are more prone to coil whine at this price point. The only visible advantage for the Asus Tuf in my case would be the ability to add the Asus thunderbolt card, which I am not sure would work reliably with a different name brand board.
 
Visii said:
I was looking at getting either the Msi Z690 pro wifi D4 or the Asus Z690 Tuf D4, both have sufficient ports for my needs and I won’t be overclocking. (B660 just makes no sense at the price and probably has worse resale value.)

My main concern is getting whichever one has the least amount of issues. However I also have read that the Asus vrms are more prone to coil whine at this price point. The only visible advantage for the Asus Tuf in my case would be the ability to add the Asus thunderbolt card, which I am not sure would work reliably with a different name brand board.
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It's going to be a crapshoot. If you get more functionality out of the Asus one, get that one instead. Either will be a RMA nightmare compared to EVGA (Of course, you pay out the ass for EVGA motherboards). Both have fairly solid BIOS's. So it's up to you.
 
Based on past experience MSI. They are worlds better at RMA service if needed than Asus.

Just do a quick search, Asus has been screwing people on motherboard support. I was one of them but there are many more. I’ll never buy another Asus product again.

Their RMA is so shady. Like I said just do a quick search. There’s no way I’d buy a new chipset that works with new and evolving CPU architecture (Intel 12th gen) from Asus. That’s asking for trouble.
 
I like the Asus bios better personally. I've never had a problem with Asus RMA the one time I had to RMA a motherboard. I also have the ROG Z690 D4 motherboard and I don't notice any coil whine.
 
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MSI has seemed to have better ram compatibility this gen if that matters, my z690 unify-x is really nice but I've not used the pro model.
 
Dan_D said:
I can literally go either way between the two. While I prefer ASUS' UEFI and software (as sad as that is), some of my favorite boards were MSI's or GIGABYTE's. The three are almost interchangeable to me.
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I agree with you, but as mentioned MSI just is my preference of the two based on past reliability for me personally. I'm not a fanboy of any manufacturer, but Gigabyte has been my go to for a while now.
 
Niner21 said:
I agree with you, but as mentioned MSI just is my preference of the two based on past reliability for me personally. I'm not a fanboy of any manufacturer, but Gigabyte has been my go to for a while now.
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I thought Gigabyte had issues - well, with the Ryzen boards mostly? I seem to recall, people complaining about usb port issues. I read reviews but also - with a grain of salt - sometimes people get angry because of something and quickly post about it (then, they don't follow up - and sometimes it's user error)?

I agree with the consensus here - brands are relatively similar in quality/performance with some variance based on specific boards. Some boards are made with beefier VRMs and some have very mediocre vrms - from brand to brand. Also, there's possibly the issue of BIOS - some boards might have a issue with the BIOS version that is released (and it needs to be modified/updated). I seem to recall some Gigabyte owners complaining that they had problems until they updated the BIOS to a newer version.

I use Linux - (dual boot, too) - and many of the brands don't have good support for temperature monitoring. Some ppl have worked on 3rd party apps to do so - I think only Asus boards have some support showing up so far. Mostly Ryzen/AM4 boards so far.

Saying all this, I have a relative who got the Z690 Tuf Gaming D4 Wifi. It looks pretty good. I think MSI and Asus are a coin toss - both mid tier and top tier Alder Lake boards look decent. I might choose Asus because of the Linux thing, though.
 
Dan_D said:
I can literally go either way between the two. While I prefer ASUS' UEFI and software (as sad as that is), some of my favorite boards were MSI's or GIGABYTE's. The three are almost interchangeable to me.
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I like MSI now. :) Z690 A-Pro DDR4?
 
Niner21 said:
Good choice from what I've read.
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Yeah, ran into the Asus Z690 motherboard heat sinks -too-close- to the socket issue - I hope you know what I am talking about? It should be okay but the huge air coolers get in the way of the plastic vrm shrouds and I dunno about the height - if that is an issue or not. The case is a mid tower but not the huge ones. I am going to visit and see what is going on.

I like the MSI board since there's a nice thread here about it. :) Plus, like you said - I have read good things and there's no issues with coolers AFAIK.
 
pavel said:
Yeah, ran into the Asus Z690 motherboard heat sinks -too-close- to the socket issue - I hope you know what I am talking about? It should be okay but the huge air coolers get in the way of the plastic vrm shrouds and I dunno about the height - if that is an issue or not. The case is a mid tower but not the huge ones. I am going to visit and see what is going on.

I like the MSI board since there's a nice thread here about it. :) Plus, like you said - I have read good things and there's no issues with coolers AFAIK.
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I have read about the VRM issues with the Asus boards. I use a decent size Noctua cooler and the exhaust fan rides pretty close to the VRM on my Aorus Elite AX DDR4 and now my Aorus Master, but it fits.
 
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Niner21 said:
I have read about the VRM issues with the Asus boards. I use a decent size Noctua cooler and the exhausr fan rides pretty close to the VRM on my Aorus Elite AX DDR4 and now my Aorus Master, but it fits.
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Very interesting. I guess it just depends on the vrm shroud on some of these motherboards - the beefier shrouds could pose a problem for some of these larger, fat coolers?

The problem was 'fixed' - couldn't use the normal fan configuration on the top of the case - now using just one fan off to the side away from the heatsink fins. It looks okay. It isn't the Rog Strix or Prime -A board - which has a much bigger shroud so it was doable.

Exhaust fan/cooler clearance is also a possible issue? Hmmmmm.... I guess Iike AIOs for another reason. :) They have some clearance fit issues, too but at least they have good aesthetics and cooling is better than in the past.
 
My last two motherboards (x299 amd X570) have been MSI and have been solid.
 
Niner21 said:
I agree with you, but as mentioned MSI just is my preference of the two based on past reliability for me personally. I'm not a fanboy of any manufacturer, but Gigabyte has been my go to for a while now.
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Niner21 said:
I have read about the VRM issues with the Asus boards. I use a decent size Noctua cooler and the exhaust fan rides pretty close to the VRM on my Aorus Elite AX DDR4 and now my Aorus Master, but it fits.
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Do you have any thoughts on the Z690 Gaming X or UD (AX)? These boards are around the same price as the MSI Pro Z690-A - I believe the vrm is a bit better than on the MSI although not sure about the UD board. I'm a bit concerned about the horror stories on the Intel i225-v which is on the MSI board and unless I get a wifi-equipped board, I would have a problem - as I plan on just using wired for the most part. Wifi is a 'nice-to-have' in case my internet goes down, I can connect to my mobile internet.
It seems to me the Gigabyte boards are pretty good - even these low end ones - the only problem is Gigabyte's BIOS support - they seem slow and there's reports of memory problems - especially if you want to OC there? But, maybe they will eventually sort it out? I don't plan on doing any OC-ing on either cpu or memory - but, perhaps, I might dabble with that with a very minor one, down the road. 'Plan on only getting 3200 mhz and trying to run it as spec.

Note: I believe both Gigabyte boards have realtek lan (RTL8125) and there doesn't seem to be as many complaints about that.

I know I could probably just buy an ethernet/lan card for the MSI if I run into the same problems others do - but, after my budget is spent, I will probably not have extra $$ until later - or maybe I will just be annoyed to be required to spend extra on 'expansion' parts for a built-in one that isn't working properly? :)
 
pavel said:
Do you have any thoughts on the Z690 Gaming X or UD (AX)? These boards are around the same price as the MSI Pro Z690-A - I believe the vrm is a bit better than on the MSI although not sure about the UD board. I'm a bit concerned about the horror stories on the Intel i225-v which is on the MSI board and unless I get a wifi-equipped board, I would have a problem - as I plan on just using wired for the most part. Wifi is a 'nice-to-have' in case my internet goes down, I can connect to my mobile internet.
It seems to me the Gigabyte boards are pretty good - even these low end ones - the only problem is Gigabyte's BIOS support - they seem slow and there's reports of memory problems - especially if you want to OC there? But, maybe they will eventually sort it out? I don't plan on doing any OC-ing on either cpu or memory - but, perhaps, I might dabble with that with a very minor one, down the road. 'Plan on only getting 3200 mhz and trying to run it as spec.

Note: I believe both Gigabyte boards have realtek lan (RTL8125) and there doesn't seem to be as many complaints about that.

I know I could probably just buy an ethernet/lan card for the MSI if I run into the same problems others do - but, after my budget is spent, I will probably not have extra $$ until later - or maybe I will just be annoyed to be required to spend extra on 'expansion' parts for a built-in one that isn't working properly? :)
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I'd go with the Gaming X over the UD IMO. The MSI board seems very popular, and I'm sure it's a good stable board. Gigabyte seems to be trying a little harder on the bios issues as well.
 
Update: Bought an open box Z690 Tuf Gaming D4 Wifi on ebay. I hope everything goes okay. It was cheaper than a brand new MSI Pro Z690-A Wifi DD4 by about $40. I was on the fence and stewed about buying it for a while - kinda concerned that it didn't get sold. :) It was the only one left. These two boards were tested in a group of motherboards benchmarked by Hardware Unboxed - both did well. The Asus had better vrms although both were fine with a 12700K.
 
I wonder if there really is much of a difference between the parts manufactured over the design and layout of the board. I would imagine the latter makes the bigger difference.

7ish years ago I had an MSI motherboard die a month out of warranty and they wouldn't honor it. I haven't had the exact same issue with Asus happen, but if I were hoping for a little extra customer service I'd bet on Asus over MSI - all other things equal.
 
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